Geraint Williams' Leyton Orient side beat his former employers today by two goals to one.

Colchester United took the lead at Brisbane Road this afternoon but former boss Geraint Williams orchestrated a victory by the odd goal in three. Just as the U's looked to be taking a lead in to the break, Leyton Orien's Charlie Daniels popped up with an equaliser from a free-kick and a dozen minutes from time, Jimmy Smith found the winner from Simon Church's cross.
U's manager Paul Lambert made four changes from the side that had been beaten by Leeds United last weekend. David Perkins and Karl Hawley were ruled out by late injuries while Mark Cousins and Mark Yeates dropped to the bench. That gave Dean Gerken a chance to resurrect his U's career in goal with Lewis Gobern and Simon Hackney providing the ammunition for full debutant Ashley Vincent.
Williams had one former U's man in his line-up with the evergreen Scott McGleish playing a big part in the recent revival which has seen them creep away from the relegation places that the former U's boss had inherited from Martin Ling.
Vincent almost had the perfect start to his first game in a blue and white (though the U's were in yellow today) but his 8th minute striker was ruled out for offside. Orient had a great chance though to open the scoring through on loan Simon Church. He latched on to the lose ball after a weak punch from Gerken but with the goal at his mercy steered the ball wide from 8 yards out.
United then applied the pressure. Gobern hit the side-netting, while Jamie Jones was in the right place to catch Hackney's piledriver. Paul Terry, brother of Chelsea's John, then cleared off the line from a Platt header at a corner while from a similar set piece, Platt's flick on was only inches away from being turned away by either Marc Tierney or Neal Trotman.
Jones had to excel for the home side as he did brilliantly to tip over a long range shot from Lewis Gobern for a corner. Trotman heading over the resultant set piece but two minutes from the break the visitors took a deserved lead. Tierney's freekick was flicked on by both Trotman and Vincent to Clive Platt who made no mistake despite Jones getting a hand to the ball. It was Platt's 10th goal of the season and he almost joined Yeates at the top of the goalscorer's chart minutes later but headed straight at the keeper.
But, just as the U's thought they would taste the oranges with a lead, Orient equalised through Daniels. Trotman conceded a free-kick which on another day, might not have been awarded, but from 30yards, Daniels picked out the bottom right hand corner and gave Gerken no chance.
Neither keeper made a change at the break and it wasn't long before Gerken was back in action. McGleish shot first time after Melligan's set up but the U's man did well to push the ball away to safety. He then did even better to prevent Trotman from scoring at the wrong end as the Preston loanee headed accidentally towards his own goal. Thankfully, Gerken turned it away at full stretch.
Shortly afterwards, McGleish blazed a chance over the bar after Tierney played him onside the U's fullback was unfortunate to see his rasping shot smack the crossbar with the keeper well beaten. Yeates replaced Gobern and Wasiu cam on for Vincent but it was skipper Hammond who went closest with a rising shot that went narrowly over the bar.
As close as United were, Orient were just as near as McGleish's opportunistic effort also hit the woodwork. But with 12 minutes left, Williams' side took the lead. Church dinked the ball over to the far psot where Jimmy Smith found the net.
United just couldn't raise themselves once again and have found themslves on the wrong end of a scoreline when perhaps they deserved at least something from the game. No doubt Geraint Williams will be very pleased to have got one over his former employers with the result ensuring that both teams will be playing League One football next season.

U's: Gerken, Maybury, Baldwin, Trotman, Tierney, Gobern (Yeates 66), Izzet, Hammond, Hackney (wordsworth 76), Platt, Vincent (wasiu 69)
Subs not used: Cousins, Coyne
O's: Jones, Purches, Mkandawire, Spence, Daniels, JJ Melligan (Gray 66), Thornton, Terry, Smith (Boyd 82), McGleish, Church
Subs not used: Morris, Saah, Cave-Brown,

Ref:D Deadman

Photo: Action Images

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